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Tuesday, 22 January 2013

'Should I beat up the PM?' Mamata Banerjee's new shocker

'Should I beat up the PM?' Mamata Banerjee's new shocker

Canning, West Bengal: Stepping up her anti-Centre tirade,
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said she had met Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh several times to protest against the hike in
fertiliser prices but to no avail.

"I have met PM ten times. I
cannot do more than this. Shall I go and beat (him up)? Then you will
say I have become a goonda. Without doing anything I am (called) a
goonda. I do not mind that. But I know the way out. We will have to set
up a fertiliser factory and it will need three or four years' time," Ms
Banerjee said.

She said the central government was pursuing
"anti-people" policies like Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in
multi-brand retail and diesel price hike.

"We cannot allow FDI in retail and other anti-people
decisions like repeated hike in diesel prices and the cap on LPG
cylinders," Ms Banerjee, whose party Trinamool Congress had quit the
government in September last year over these issues, said.

The
chief minister claimed that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance
(UPA) would go in for a snap election in the middle of this year.

"They
would go for an election in August-September this year. There will be
no implementation of the forthcoming Union Budget (budgetary proposals
which will be placed in Parliament)," Ms Banerjee said.

The chief
minister threatened to "take the fight for Bengal to the streets of
Delhi" if the Centre did not respond to her demand for a three-year
moratorium on repayment of past debts and interests due on West Bengal.

"When
the Left Front government was in power, it was allowed to take loans. I
am going to wait for some more days. If the Centre does not accept our
demand (for a moratorium and debt restructuring), I will be forced to
take the fight for Bengal to the streets of Delhi," she said at the
rally.

"Our government is doing very well. We have fulfilled the
promises made in our manifesto. But the Centre is not allowing us to
take further loans," she said.

"Please look towards Bengal with
love. (Bengal) is the gateway of north-eastern states. Bengal is the
border of Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal," she said. "If Bengal is
developed, then India is developed. Please look at Bengal," Ms Banerjee
said.

On the Centre's subsidy for different central projects and
the Congress's claims on helping the states through central schemes, she
said, "If they are showing mercy through these (subsidised schemes),
whose money is this? Is it your money or my money? It is the money of
the states," she asserted.

Ms Banerjee said the Centre was making Rs. 40,000 crore per year on account of various taxes from which Rs. 18,000 crore was being given to the state from the central pool.

"However, another Rs. 26,000 crore is being taken away from the state in the form of debt and interest repayment on central loans," she pointed out.

Slamming
the UPA government over FDI in retail, hike in diesel prices,
non-subsidised LPG and fertiliser price hike, she said, "This government
will have to pay the price for setting the kitchens on fire".

She
said if the Left Parties and the BJP had responded to her request and
supported the no-confidence motion moved by her party, "then there would
have been a fall of this government and (UPA-II) could not put pressure
on the people".

"But unfortunately, they (parties) did not pay
heed to our call and like the Royal Bengal Tiger, Trinamool Congress is
one party which has the guts and did not care for ministerial positions
or anything while safeguarding interests of the people," she said.

The
chief minister said she supported the issues on which the Left and
other trade unions have called a country-wide industrial strike on
February 20 and 21, but would not allow observance of any bandh or
blockade on those days in the state.

Reiterating her opposition
to FDI in multi-brand retail, she said, "I am not against foreigners but
FDI in multi-brand retail would snatch the livelihoods of 50 lakh small
traders. RPG group is doing retail business but they (are) indigenous
(businessmen). There could be one or two shopping malls."

Ms
Banerjee, who has decided that her Trinamool Congress would go it alone
in the crucial panchayat elections due in May this year, said Congress
and CPI(M) were trying to team up against her party, but they would not
succeed.

She said she would not allow any communal riots and alleged that "the Congress, CPI(M) and BJP were trying to foment trouble."

She
said a section of the media, which is spreading canards against her
government on various issues, was also spreading rumours abroad that
CPI(M) would return to power.

"I am saying that they will not come back to power in 30 years," Ms Banerjee said